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A search on dWorks for 'Content Manager' resulted in 4223 hits! I have excellent news for all those trained in using DB2 Content Manager V8.3. A new certification exam has been developed and recently released. Here are the details. IBM Certified Solution Designer DB2 Content Manager V8.3 Objective: Enable database professionals to prove their competency on the industry most advance database technology to solve the critical business issue of managing and integrating all forms of information, including scanned images, audio, video and... [More]

Most of the publishing of technical books about DB2 originates in the United States, but not all. I know of a few books there were published in the Netherlands, Japan, India and Denmark. Only one of these books that I know of has been translated to English and sold world-wide, but if someone knows of any other books, please comment. Rick Vanderlans het SQL leerboek Once a book is published in English, we try to make it available in as many English-speaking countries as possible, but occasionally there are problems with this. Many countries... [More]

I've heard that the very popular DB2 assessment exams are still free through Self Test Software. Register to take the exams via this link: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/cert/assessment.html Of course, they won't be free for long! I know this isn't happy news for anyone, but the exams are very, very popular, so we are unable to maintain them as free for the time being. The fee that will be charged is low at $10 per try, but I have been granted permission to give tips through my blog. What I plan to do is to post an actual... [More]

First, let's look at the intended audience for the test as well its structure. The target audience is a database developer who has an in-depth knowledge of: * all common programming tasks * embedded SQL programming, ODBC/CLI programming, or Java programming There are 63 multiple choice questions on the test and you are required to get a score of 57% or better to pass. The following 7 sections are on the test: * Database objects and Programming Methods (13%) * Data Manipulation (26%) * Embedded SQL Programming (11%) * ODBC/CLI... [More]

Today's assessment question is also from Section 1: Database objects and Programming Methods (13%). Specifically, it tests this objective: * Your ability to identify the more common privileges used when developing or running DB2 UDB applications. The FINANCE application contains static SQL and issues the following statements: SELECT name,id FROM prod.employee UPDATE prod.dept SET dept=dept+1 INSERT INTO prod.dept VALUES(:id,:name) Assuming a user can connect to the database, which of the following privileges must be granted to the user so... [More]

I'm sure that everyone reading BLOG entries understands the impact a word of mouth reference can be. If someone you know and respect recommends something to you, most likely you will be receptive to the recommendation. Conversely, if they strongly recommend against something, most likely you'll stay away from it as well. Even if you don't personally know the person who made a review, you'll likely be influenced if a large number of people had similar positive or negative comments. Book sales are strongly impacted by reader comments and... [More]

Earlier I mentioned how proud I was of this book. One of the authors has just sent me a blog review of this book from James Koopmann( http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/database/solutions/archives/005241.asp ). Clearly James is also very impressed with the book for many reasons. If you haven't checked this book out yet, I encorage you to do so. I have made this the August book of the month and coincidentally, Amazon decided to put it on special. You can get the book at a 37% discount right now! Go for it. Also, the book has made it into Amazon's... [More]

Today's assessment question is also from Section 1: Database objects and Programming Methods (13%). Specifically, it tests this objective: * Your ability to identify the different database objects that are available with DB2 UDB. Given the following CREATE TABLE statement: CREATE TABLE tab1 (empid INTEGER GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY, name CHAR(50), dept CHAR(3)) Which of the operations will cause an error to be generated? A. INSERT INTO tab1 VALUES (DEFAULT, 'Jagger', 'E01') B. INSERT INTO tab1 VALUES (1, 'Jagger', 'E01') C. INSERT INTO tab1... [More]

Today I'd like to tell you about a book that is coming out in September that I think you'll like. The book is: Self-Service Linux: Mastering the Art of Problem Determination http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/013147751X/qid=1125420948/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-8524566-1932154?v=glance&s=books by Mark Wilding, Dan Behman Save 34% on amazon.com today! Book will be shipped to you on Sept 21, 2005. Why this book? Well first of all, I worked for months (possibly as much as 2 years) with Mark and Dan to get this book published. Originally... [More]

Invest in Your Skills and Learn about new functionality, VERY QUICKLY! Buy one or more of the best selling DB2 UDB Version 8 books from IBM Press: DB2 Universal Database V8.1 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows Database Administration Certification Guide, 5/e ISBN: 0130463612 by George Baklarz and Bill Wong http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/bookstore/certify.html#2 DB2 Version 8: The Official Guide ISBN: 0131401580 by Paul Zikopoulos, Roman Melnyk, Dirk DeRoos, George Baklarz http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education/bookstore/ref.html DB2... [More]

This week I'm in Orlando working at the DB2 Information Management Conference. My main role at the conference is to administer certification exams to the attendees. The exams are normally $120 - $150 each, but are free to attendees this week. Business is strong! We've given nearly 200 exams in the first day! Many of these exams are at the entry level which means that we still have many new people to our certification programs. The passing rate is also quite good, with a 72% overall. My second role at the conference is to promote the DB2... [More]

Another 200 exams taken on the second day of the conference! That brings our two day total of exams given to 400! We appear to be on our way to breaking our previous record of conference exams. Lots of action in the bookstore as well. Many people are choosing to purchase one of the Sanders study guide or the certification guides rather than paying $10 to take an assessment exam. The study guides have a set of assessment questions that explain reason an answer is correct. This may be more helpful to prepare for the exam than taking the... [More]

We gave another 200 exams on our third day. This brings the total number of exams given this week to over 600! We've been giving free exams to the attendees of this conference for more that 7 years now, so the attendees look forward to this offer. Our exams normally cost $150 per try, so many conference attendees use this savings as a way to justify their conference fees. There are attendees who have taken and PASSED more than 5 exams this week. That is a significant savings for their companies, just in terms of the exam fees. Also because... [More]

875 exams taken after 4 days! Very steady business. We offer DB2, WebSphere, Lotus, Tivoli and Rational exams, but clearly this is a DB2 crowd! We offer all the exams to help people become cross trained in all SWG products. I had dinner with Roger Sanders last night. I first met Roger years ago just after he published his first book about DB2. I'm glad that I was able to work with him on the three Exam Study guides that he wrote for our Version 8 exams and I'm working very hard to get more book projects for Roger. Roger tells me that he... [More]